Author: Michael Blood
Components of a Coordinated Bank Switch Kit
A Bank Switch Kit is a form or set of forms that helps a customer switch their bank account from one bank to a new bank account. Generally this is focused around transferring automatic payments from the old bank to the new bank.
We have identified several types of Bank Switch Kits and we discuss each of them in this series
- Simple – contains a Notification Form to send to each company
- Organized – contains a Notification Form to send to each company and a Worksheet to help coordinate the transfers
Within the Switch Kits we have identified two types of Notification Forms
- Generic – A form created by the bank, which can be used to send to each company
- Specific – A form specific to each vendor company to assist their customer with switching banks
Organized Bank Switch Kit
Washington Federal Switch Organizer Company Type ListOrganized Bank Switch Kits have a form or a worksheet to help the bank customer keep track of transferring automatic payments for the multiple companies they use.
Identifying and Listing the Companies
The Organizer Worksheet is typically made up of a way to check a box next to a list the companies that will need to have automatic payments transferred over. They are typically made up of one or more of the following:
- Blank Lines – The customer has blank fields where they can write down each of the companies that they need to notify
- Common Company Types – Lists the common types of companies that each customer may have. (Mortgage, Power, Gas, Phone, Cable, HOA)
- Specific Company List – Smaller Community Banks have fewer utilities their customers might be working with and they might be able to list the company names for Power, Gas or other utilities.
Each of these methods prompts the customer to identify each of the companies that they have automatic payments with. These worksheets simplify a task that could seem overwhelming to identify each of the companies they work with on auto payment.
Tracking Notification of Bank Account Switch
Notifying a company that you would like them to switch automatic payments to a new bank accounts takes time. Bank Switch Kit Organizer Worksheets are designed to simply the process.
Not all worksheets are designed the same but they attempt to help collect some amount of information so that the customer has a single place they have to refer to. Then they organize the process of notifying and tracking the progress of notifying the companies.
Bremer Bank Organized Switch Kit with places to track company name and contact info, account and payment information and whether the switch is complete- Collect the company names and account numbers of all accounts
- Track the notification instructions for notifying each specific company (mailing address, phone number, etc)
- Track dates and methods that notification was sent or started
- Track dates of when the switch was successful ans confirmed
This will typcially be done by listing out a number of fields next to each of the companies that were identified or listed on the Organizer Worksheet. The most common types of fields are:
- Company Name – A place to write the actual name of the company, this is the only way that a company name is listed on a Blank Lines style of worksheet, some Common Company Types worksheets do not make room for this, since the customer often already knows exactly who their power, gas and cable provider is.
- Date – A date to track the process of when transfer is started, often room for more than one date can be made so that the form can track the date the switch was confirmed.
- Notification Instructions – a place to note how the company should be notified when a bank account switch needs to occur
- Account #- a convenient place to write the number of the account the customer holds with that company
- Amount – you can write the amount of the automatic payment that is made
- Notified – a place to mark a check or a date when you sent a notice to the company requesting a switch to the new account
- Switched – a place to mark a check or a date after you have confirmed that the company has official switched over to your new bank.
When a bank includes an Organizer worksheet in their Bank Switch Kit, they give a tool for the customer to keep track of the process and know where the next step is.
Examples of Organizer Worksheets for Switch Kits
In researching the different Organizer Worksheets, we found many different styles and we have linked to several of them below
- Washington Federal [link] – Has an overview page for their switch kit which lists several steps for switching, Step 2 is to download their Switch Organizer which lists several Common Company Types. The form helps the customers collect their account numbers and mark whether the company has been ‘Notified’ and whether the automatic payment has been ‘Switched’. The form does not have any place to list the name of the company next to the company type, and it does not attempt to help collect Notifications Instructions for any of the companies. The form does provide blanks and lines for a great number of possible companies and company types that might need to be switched.
- Bremer [link] – A community bank in Ohio, has single pdf file Switch Kit which has all of the instructions for how to fill out the switch kit. On page 5 they have a list of less than 10 Common Company Types that may need to have automatic payments transferred from. The Table has a grid with columns to enter the phone number, account number, amount , payment date, and a check box for when the switch was completed. Better the Washington Federal option, the Kit has a place to list the phone number, which could be useful help coordinate the and verify that the transfer went through. Many companies require that you mail them a form though, and this form falls short of providing a place to track the address to send the form. One unique item on this table is the payment date. While this is often a bit more complex, sometimes the date that transfers have to be made, must be carefully timed with the date the date that automatic payments will be withdrawn to make sure funds are available and not split between two banks.
Examples of Switch Kits which fall short of Organizer Worksheets
- Central Bank [link] – Has an overview page similar to Washington Federal, where they describe the process of switching accounts starts with opening an account and then “Gather your account information and enter it on the Easy Switch Kit Account Information Worksheet-Form A (below) designed specifically for this purpose.” Later on the page they provide the link to the PDF Switch Kit Organizer Worksheet file named ‘SwitchKit_formA-LexWin.pdf’. Oddly, when opening this file, it has a title that shows ‘Microsoft Word – Switch Kit Acct_Form-A.doc’. If you look at the document, there is very little information that you would actually need as part of a switch kit. Typcially you simply need the NEW routing number and account number that you need to send to each company to let them know where they need to go. In this form, they prompt you to enter a plethora of information about the account owner, joint account owner and the new account information. In most cases you already have this information in your other documentation on the bank, which seems to make this form unnecessary. It does not help the customer switch their automatic payments and direct deposits over to the new bank, it actually just helps the new account owner collect information about them selves which will help them to open their account more quickly, saving the New Accounts banker time. We actually call this type of Kit a New Account Information Organization Kit as it helps a customer setup a new account, without any assistance related to moving money, automatic payments or direct deposits from a previous bank.
Matraex studies and produces articles related to Bank Switch kits as part of our research to release upgraded features in our Auto Switch Kit product.
Announcing the Matraex Web Development and Design Vocabulary List
Summary: Matraex has launched a Matraex Web Design and Development Vocabulary List centrally define terms for our industry and improve communication internally and with our clients. We are adding to the list frequently and appreciate suggestions
Web Design Communication Need
Matraex has worked with clients during the last 15 years, developing and supporting marketing websites and custom web applications.
Each project is different and brings together a unique combination of client understanding and needs.
Preferences, capabilities and web development technologies and are constant evolving and each unique situation has presented us with opportunities to improve our products and our process. Across the hundreds of the projects we have implemented (I should count them), one thing that would have helped each of them is improved communication.
We find it useful to educate our clients on the terms we use when discussing projects. An important part of starting a project is to take time to define the vocabulary we use and agree on what certain terms mean. This allows us to have more meaningful conversations with better understanding and less confusions.
Design Vocabulary List
These thoughts have led us to create the “Matraex Web Design and Development Vocabulary List“. This list has many of the terms that define what our industry does, and it defines many of the terms we use in the web design industry.
Many of the terms have a simple description or definition of the Term, however with some of the terms we have spent more time defining them. Where we reference other websites such as Wikipedia, or blogs where other individuals write about the terms.
In some cases there is some ambiguity between some of the terms, and we write about the differences between the two terms.
And of course, since the terms often apply directly to what we do here at Matraex, we often included details about how the word applies to the work we do at Matraex.
Changes to the Vocabulary List
Depending on when you happened upon this blog, you may find that the list is sparse (such as when we first launch this list in February of 2016) or that it is very well filled out, we are adding words as we can, and we will enhance the definitions of words as we find better ways do describe them.
I invite any one that reads any of these articles, to send me suggestions for words that should be added to or changed on the list. I welcome suggestions:
- of update or enhance or extend the definition of a term
- for new words that you think should be added
- of article links which lend to the definitions of new (or existing) words on our list
- for articles that could be written to disambiguate two terms
Switch Kit – Bank Retail Manager Conversation
The following is part of a hypothetical conversation with the Retail Accounts Manager at ‘First State Bank’ about how Matraex’s Auto Switch Kit meets an important business need. The Auto Switch Kit is an online three to five minutes form wizard to print automatic payment transfer forms as new accounts signup to your bank, increasing bank revenue and saving accounts which stop at the minimum.
Our dialog starts just a few minutes into the conversation….
Michael: Auto Switch Kit Product Advocate
Rene: The Retail Accounts Manager at First New State Bank.
Michael: How long does it take for your new retail Customers to fill out the forms necessary to switch their automatic payments to your bank?
Rene: Actually, it is much better than it used to be, we provide them with our First New State Switch Kit, and customers simply have to fill it out for each account they want to switch over. Customers don’t have to make phone calls or search multiple websites for the forms to send to their power, gas and other companies.
Michael: Then, customers are pretty fast at sending those forms in and transferring their automatic payments over to your bank?
Rene: Some are, but sometimes it takes a while for them to search out all of the companies and call them to find out where to send them. Actually, some customers never complete their plan to transfer direct deposits and automatic payments.
Michael: Do you bank every evaluate the value of transaction fees or other revenue lost as a result of a slow or aborted switch to your bank?
Rene: No, but we do know that a customer that completes the switch immediately is worth more than one that takes weeks or months. Customers that abort the switch actually cost the bank a little bit of money. There is also the cost of making followup phone calls to encourage them to complete the transfer. Our accounts have very attractive benefits, but customers some the process can be so intimidating that some give up, we don’t have any idea how many new customers we could get if auto payment by the process that they leave their new account with the minimum balance and return to their previous bank.
Michael: What if I told you that the Auto Switch Kit would take 2 to 5 additional minutes of your New Account Rep’s time, and they could deliver every one of the forms, filled out and ready for customer signature? The bank could even mail them to help ensure that the automatic transfers happened.
Rene: I am skeptical. Some customers have more than a dozen different accounts. Wouldn’t our Representative have to fill out each form? It probably takes our customers hours to find all of the information and fill it all out.
Michael: That is certainly one of the reasons we created the Auto Switch Kit. After new customers leave your branch with an account, they still have lots of work to do before they truly become your customer. Matraex’s Auto Switch Kit team preloads each local company so your Rep simply select each one as the customer says they have auto pay with them.
Rene: Is that when they fill out each individual form? Doesn’t that take just as long?
Michael: Ah! This is when the magic happens. A single form prompts for the customer’s information, their account number with First New State Bank And each of the local company account numbers. Your rep already has this information so selecting the check boxes and quickly filling out each of the fields only takes a minute or two. They click to create the Switch Kit and each company forms is printed and ready for customer signature. Less than 5 extra minutes and your new customer has sign-able forms ready to send to each company that will switch their accounts.
Rene: That sounds great but I still have a some of questions. How did my Representative get all of the Customer’s account numbers for their Utilities?
Michael: That is something that Reps will get better at with a little practice, they can give the Customer a paper with list of companies to research their account number on their phone while the Rep is filling out other forms. Many Customers don’t have smart phones so if they talked to the Rep before coming to the branch, they could have asked the Customer to bring a bill from each of the companies.
Rene: Without a quick tool to automatically fill out those forms, we never could take the time to fill out these forms, so we didnt have the Customer bring those with them, with this we could have their account almost completely filled out. But what about the new accounts that simply don’t know their account numbers, if they leave without finishing those forms wouldn’t they still be in the same situation as before the Auto Switch Kit?
Michael: We suggest two possible methods, one method is to give them the fully filled out form. The company’s address is already on it, all they have to do is fill in the account number for that company and mail it off. This is much easier than having a customer start with a blank form they have to fill out 10 times for different companies. The second method is to print the form, ask for the customer’s signature and put the form in a customer file. Then set a time the Rep can call the Customer when they are home with their paper work to collect those final numbers. Then you mail the forms to the company.
Rene: Hmm, that way we could take an active role in completing the New Account transfer. In our current method we are calling all clients after a week or two in order to find out if they have switched, with this new method some Customers would have the entire transfer paperwork before they leave the branch and others would have it 90% filled out before they leave the branch. Sign us up!
Michael: Hold on, I am just an Auto Switch Kit Product Advocate, use the form below to get in touch with an actual Auto Switch Kit Team Member from Matraex.
Rene: Great! I will do that right now.
[contact-form-7 id=”9556″ title=”Auto Switch Kit – Full Contact Form”]
AWS CodeDeploy Solutions
We have worked with several clients, to come up with Code Deployment solutions.
In some cases, the solutions is small, on a simple website redesign where the client simply wants to have the revisions history that comes with a Code repository such as GIT or Subversion (SVN).
However in more robust environments, where the client needs to have separate development, test and productions servers (dev, test and live), we often end up building a more involved software development lifecycle (SDLC).
One of the Software Development Life Cycles we use makes use of the AWS platform and the Code Deployment tools. This article is to describe a little bit about how we have used the code deployment tools, and to give Round Up all of the articles we have written as of 2/26/2016 about solving issues with AWS Code Deploy.
CodeDeploy on AWS
CodeDeploy on AWS is a tool which automatically connects to a group of EC2 servers, to deploy code and runs scripts. This automates the labor intensive task of connecting to and consistently updating several each time that a new version of a new website design or development.
The concept behind the way we have used it is. Setup a CodeDeployment group and associate it with an AutoScaling group. When your group grows, the code is deployed to it, When your code is deployed all members of the group receive it.
- make your source code changes in your development environment
- zip up your source code and upload it to an S3 bucket
- create a new revision within your deployment group and start the deployment
The AWS system will, over the course of 1 to 30 minutes, go through each of your servers (depeing on your deployment configuration, I always use OneAtATime)
The following Roundup, lists each of the articles matraex has written about the AWS Code Deployment
Challenges when working with CodeDeploy and an AWS AutoScaling Group
I write about how in one setup I used a GIT repo to store my code, then I write some automated scripts (deploy.php) to check in the code, and deploy it to a test environment, and then to deploy the code to live (each has their own separate group).
In this AWS Auto Scaling Group – CodeDeploy Challenges article
I talk:
- about how errors in the codedeploy-agent are hard to debug
- if a server is terminating while you deploy, the deployment could fail
- in an update, I describe a script command that can be run to clean up the install to prevent some deployment failure
Debugging CodeDeploy
I write about some of the difficulties of understanding what is happening during a code deployment and how to debug it.
The quick of it is to update ‘/etc/codedeploy-agent/conf/codedeployagent.yml’ to have ‘verbose=true’ and restart the codedeployagent and then read the ‘/var/log/aws/codedeploy-agent/codedeployment-agent.log’ file to figure out what happened.
Read the entire article Debugging CodeDeployment on AWS here for more of a description with the actual commands highlighted and for a couple error examples
The Managed WordPress Hosting 6-Point Check
The Managed WordPress Hosting 6-Point Check
Our Managed WordPress Hosting service has features such as emergency data restoration and software updates. An important block of the Service includes a 6-point check for items that are often red flags to deeper problems. For example, checking Google for blacklisting or hacked status tells us that the website has further problems to investigate and address.
This is an example of such a case. Google and other search engines aren’t compelled to contact you or to help you if your website is in a compromised state. Google’s Webmaster Tools can be used to declare ownership of the website. In this case, you are likely to receive an automated email but it must be set to do so. This is all you will receive. Just an email and you must take further action. If your website is compromised your search engines results will pay for it. This will increase in severity as time passes. Eventually, the website is blacklisted and completely removed from Google. Ouch.
In my article detailing the Top 3 Reasons You Need A Managed WordPress Service, I discussed the importance of having a human that regularly monitors the status and health of your website.
Our 6-point check includes:
- Search engine health
- Changelog scans
- Internal Malware scanner
- External Malware scanner
- User Account Checks
- Pages/Posts Checks
Again, the 6-point check is in addition to our deeper maintenance routine and is an additional layer of protection for our clients websites.
Changelog Scans
The Changelog scans give us an insight into suspicious activity on the system. Changelog analysis often assist us in discovering malicious activity on the webservers. They help us to identify vulnerabilities as well. Hackers and their script bots are relentless in ferreting out any little opening that they can exploit. System administrators must be diligent and ever watchful. If a hacker penetrates a system, he/she can wreak havoc. This will cost a website owner quite a lot of time and money. Not to mention the possible damage to the brand of the business.
Defend your website(s) with our Managed WordPress Hosting Service!
Is your slow webpage/website speed due to your CMS?
It can be difficult to evaluate what is causing a slower website speed, especially when you use a CMS which does a lot of the work for you.
We often use tools like Pingdom and PageSpeed Insights to help us find what the actual website speed of the full site is, and both of those sites have suggestions for
use a tool like Pingdom to test your website speedspeeding things up.
A suggestion that often comes up in PageSpeed insight for a slow site will be:
They provide additional links and suggestions, but here is on suggestion I haven’t seen yet, to help evaluate how much of the speed is a related to CMS or server side processing.
- Load the page you are concerned about, perhaps http://matraex.com
- Right click and view the source of that page
- Save the text of that page (Ctrl A- Ctrl -C) open a notepad and Ctrl V, – Save as temp.test.html
- Upload the file to your website (ex: http://matraex.com/temp.test.html) .
- Test the site speed with Pingdom and PageSpeed Insights
Note the difference in speed, you can use a tool like the Matraex Webpage Performance Assessment Tool which will allow you to save some of the important numbers you get from each of the sites and then compare them the next time.
If you are on a ubuntu or other linux server and the current working directory is the root of your website, A quick one line way to create the file is
htdocs> wget -O temp.test.html http://matraex.com
Top 3 Reasons You Need A Managed WordPress Service
Top 3 Reasons You Need A Managed WordPress Service
Regular monitoring
Any number of problems can arise with a WordPress website. It is important to have a human regularly monitoring your WordPress website. With a Managed WordPress Service, you will have any number of technical staff regularly monitoring your website. Every website on the Internet is vulnerable to a long list of issues from hackers to hardware failure. No system is impermeable and even external events can take a website down such as network router failures.
Freedom to Focus
With a Managed WordPress Service, you don’t have to spend your valuable time dealing with any technical issues. This allows you to do what matters, that is build your content and audience. How can you spend your valuable time on SEO or building new content for your website when you have to deal with technical trouble or malware. An analogy I like to use is that you want to focus on driving your car, not working on the engine.
Expert Support
As a blogger or business person, you should not have to be a technical expert at WordPress. With a Managed WordPress Service, you get a team of experienced WordPress experts that support you when trouble arises.
What sort of trouble should you be concerned with? Malware, hackers, software bugs etc. Many people aren’t aware that almost every WordPress website on the Internet is probed for vulnerabilities and password guessing, all the time. The content or popularity of the site doesn’t matter. Hackers just want to get into your system so they can use to it trick Google and other search engines into helping their money websites.
Having a team of WordPress experts on your side saves a lot of time and money for a low-cost investment.
Matraex Inc., offers an affordable Managed WordPress Service with regular monitoring, hacker/malware defense and removal service, schedule reports, and emergency updates/security patches. Contact us for a free quote!
Integrate local company forms into your bank’s Switch Kit
A bank’s switch kit attempts to make it easy for a new bank customer to switch all of their automated payments from their previous bank account to their new bank account.
It is most convenient for a customer, when a local company, like the local power utility has a simple form that they can fill out to update the company on which bank account to draw automatic payments from.
Auto Switch Kit
Enter the Auto Switch Kit, a web application dedicated to your bank. This secure website has a preloaded list of the most common local companies. We set up each of these forms to integrate, which makes it so that the customer’s information only needs to be entered once and then when saving, the information is merged into each of the PDF forms, whether it is only one or fifteen.
If you need a Generic Form in your Auto Switch Kit, no problem it will be filled out with all of the consumer’s information and merged, so that they only have to fill out the information specific to the local company they want to switch to.
What is a Bank Switch Kit
What is a Bank Switch Kit?
A Bank Switch Kit is a tool usually focused on automatic payments and direct deposits which help customers switch their account one bank account to another.
How does a Switch Kit differentiate your bank from others?
By shortening the time required to switch automated payment.
The Auto Switch Kit product helps the consumer fill out many forms in a matter of 2 to 5 minutes. Where it could have taken 10 to 30 using other methods.
The process of switching typically goes like this:
- User fills out their name, new bank account information and their employer information on a direct deposit change form.
- User fills out their name, new bank account information, power company name, address account number.
- User fills out their name, new bank account information, cable company name, address account number.
This form has to be filled out 5 to 10 times.
Auto Switch Kit
Our Auto Switch Kit takes a different approach to minimize the amount of work that the Bank Customer has to do in order to switch their account (making it easier for them to switch to your Bank)
User selects checkboxes from a preset list of local Vendor companies
User fills their name, new account, and local Vendor account numbers on a single form.
System displays all local company forms, filled out and ready for printing.
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| Generic | Auto Switch Kit | |
| How many forms have to be filled out | Filling out multiple forms with the same information, one form for every vendor | Fill out all information at once |
| Easy to select and remember | Must remember which companies, and then type out the names of each of them. | Prompts for the most common local companies such as power and cable and other utilities. |
| Faster, more accurate information | ou must fill out the company’s address information which likely involves researching the correct address and mailing procedure on it. | Uses the local company’s local form which has the logo, address information and mailing procedure on it. |
See for yourself how this tool can help you.
Request a demo
[contact-form-7 id=”9161″ title=”PDF Switch Kit Demo”]
OpenVPN requires IPv4 forwarding to allow routing between servers
OpenVPN requires IPv4 forwarding to allow routing between servers
The problem: no connectivity between two computers that are both connecting into an openVPN server. the open VPN server is able to connect to both of the computers
Open VPN Setup
Two different computers connecting to the open VPN server on the same C class IP.
- computer 1: ifconfig-push 10.1.11.13 10.1.11.1
- computer 2: ifconfig-push 10.1.11.211 10.1.11.1
Solution
The short term solution is to run a command that enables IPv4 forwarding
#sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
However this will not survive a reboot. so open the sysctl configuration file and set it.
>vi /etc/sysctl.conf #uncomment the net.ipv4.ip_forward line # Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4 net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
That’s it, the 2 computers should be able to communicate